Standard Life told its shareholders yesterday that it had been admitted to the FTSE4Good index of companies recognised for high standards of corporate responsibility, but was meanwhile accused of continuing to resist trade union recognition in the company.

Sir Brian Stewart, the outgoing chairman, trumpeted the insurer's business achievements since flotation last July, led by a 50% rise in the shares, which are two-thirds privately held.

He reminded shareholders of their first 5.4p dividend due this week and their bonus share issue in July, and said the plc's business success would be built on "building lifetime relationships with customers".

Stewart, stepping down after four years as chairman and 14 on the board, said: "We are on track to deliver everything we promised at the time of the IPO and more. We see considerable opportunities to further our business and to keep making progress in the future."

He added that Standard had last year donated £2.2m to charity and its employees had given 11,000 hours to good causes, while the company had cut carbon emissions by 6% and waste by 8%, helping to ensure its admittance to FTSE4Good.

Sandy Crombie, chief executive, said the group's shares were held by 70% of its former mutual members and by 99% of staff. He showed a graphic illustrating a 57% rise in the share price from the 218.5p discounted offer price to 341p (last Friday), some 71p higher than a notional rise in line with the insurance sector.

The meeting at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre lacked the passion of annual confrontations in the run-up to demutualisation, but it did throw up some uncomfortable moments for the board.

Crombie, the subject of a fat cat protest outside the meeting by the Unite and Amicus trade unions, which contrasted his £8m pension pot with reduced staff pension benefits, was questioned on union recognition. He said: "On the issue of collective bargaining rights, we can't go forward unless we have evidence there is a substantial leaning in that direction."

Pressed further by shareholder George Henderson on whether he would hold a secret ballot to gauge support, Crombie said Amicus had "produced no evidence" of workforce support for what would be a "costly exercise".

However, Amicus national officer David Fleming said afterwards: "This is absolute rubbish. They know how many people have been involved in the union. They have never asked for the detail and the statistics because they have never engaged in a conversation about it. They are just stalling."

He said the union "certainly had" membership above the 10% threshold needed to begin a formal process of applying to the Central Arbitration Committee, but it still hoped to have meaningful talks with Standard. "We think that is achievable, but we are getting more pessimistic that it is the will of the company."

Crombie told shareholders that without the changes to the staff pension scheme "the deficit would have been too high and would have subtracted too much from the benefits to be crystallised for members". Consultation on amendments to the company's proposals had now ended, he said.

Stewart, meanwhile, was unable to tell one questioner how many staff had been made redundant in the past year, though he said he would produce the figure afterwards. He was also reluctant to put a figure on the aggregate mortgage endowment shortfall experienced by with-profits customers, several of whom complained that their policies had failed to share in the forward march of the company and its executives' rewards.

Shareholder Jane Gibson said when the stock market had forged ahead along with director bonuses, "why can't some of this money be used to meet the minimum requirement of endowment policyholders?" Crombie responded: "What we can't generate is money that isn't there."

On the shortfall, he said: "I don't know what that number is but I would bet it is bigger than £1.3bn, which is the amount of capital in that fund, which simply can't fill the gap."